Let Santa Go! Let Santa Go!

My feet are still absolutely frozen even though I got home from the protest 4 hours ago! But it was very good and successful I think. Some incredibly supportive and encouraging comments, including those who joined the protest after hearing what it was for! ( I hear that happened a lot around the country!)

There were some people who said, and I quote, “I don’t give a shit about anyone but myself. Let me into the shopping mall”. Which was a bit depressor. I will write a longer blog on what I think of that, but for now I need to warm my feet, have dinner and watch Bridget Jones. Because that’s how I roll.

I did make a video though! It got a bit music video since I love this Beck song so much, but hope it gives a good impression of the day. Not one, but TWO Father Christmases in jail. Sorry kiddos, Christmas is off. Also, those guys on the roof have only just come down! 7 hours in the cold! Good on them.

hanna ♥

Tomorrow is Pay Day!

Tomorrow at 12 noon, I am meeting the Brighton Uncut crew under the clock tower and then we’ll be off peacefully protesting against corporate tax dodgers on the high street. This will be my first anti-cuts protest, but I am prepared! I know the last Brighton cuts protest outside TopShop a couple of weeks ago resulted in protestors being kettled for 4 hours, so here is my list of what I’m taking:

• Walking boots. Good ankle support for marching round and warm so my feet won’t get cold in the snow.
• Water. But I will only drink this when severely dehydrated – there are no toilets in a kettle, y’know.
• Biscuits! To eat and hand out and thus attract activisty friends like moths to a flame.
• A sandwich. This is all for me.
• A flip camera, so I can record amazing actions / passerby reactions / potential police brutality.
• Clean hair. If you don’t have this you risk being seen as a hippy / crustie / social pariah by 95% of the population, whatever your cause. Sorry.
• Lipstick, obviously. I’m on a protest darlings, not in prison (yet).
• Phone so I can tweet! Follow me @hannathomas
• Banner – I don’t actually have this, but in an ideal world I would!
• A big smile. Yes, I am blimmin’ angry about the cuts. For me, it means jobs will be scarce when I graduate from my masters and that my brother, who is nearly 16, will have to pay up to eight times more than I did to go to uni. It also means that the young, unemployed people I work with at Otesha will find it even harder to find jobs or get any qualifications. Having said all this, my anger is directed at the government, not the people who are shopping or work at the stores. So I plan to be smiling at them and having some great conversations with them tomorrow.

Here is a video of the last protest in Brighton and if you’re looking for what’s going in your own town visit UK Uncut here.

Super Sunday

1. I don’t know what this means, but I like it. Another print by Mr A Hayes.

2. My friends Jess and Char came down for the day yesterday and we had such a fun time! We had a good trawl through the antiques market – I bought this very freaky owl mask which is quite possibly the best thing ever. Now someone needs to have a woodland themed party, like, now.

3. Brighton Farm Market is, I think, my favourite place to be on a Saturday. Look at the scrummy food! Get the vegan hot chocolate from the Jolly Green Cafe. Divine.

4. We also hit up Terre a Terre while Jess and Char were down, which was the craziest culinary experience I’ve ever had in my life. If you want vegetarian food like you’ve never tasted before, definitely definitely check this out.

5. I’ve been following the anti-cuts protests avidly and was so, so disappointed that the rise in tuition fees got voted through. I’ll definitely be attending the Pay Day protests next weekend. In the meantime, I read about this incredible one woman TopShop protest, that involves chocolate. Sounds good to me.

6. Only just discovered 80s band Martha and the Muffins. Where have they been all my life? Super!

7. I was very proud of my friends Niel Bowerman, Kirsty Schneeberger and Casper ter Kuile for being featured in The Guardian as youth climate leaders. Well done guys!

hanna ♥

Craftivist Collective meeting – photos

As promised, here are the photos from the Craftivist Collective meeting from last Thursday, hosted at the lovely Paper Dress Vintage. Proof that I have been crafting! We were embroidering the names of women who have gone missing in Mexico, presumed dead. The authorities won’t investigate the disappearances of these women, so we were taking part in an art project designed to remember them and raise awareness.

I also need to show you all the ace action the group did to mark the beginning of London Fashion Week. They snuck inside Somerset House (where a lot of the shows go on) and put up this mini protest banner. C’est tres cool.

Pants to Poverty

This evening I was invited to a blogger’s event (I’m an official blogger now!) at Pants to Poverty, organised by Hannah Perse-Clarke at His & Hers Daily Styling. It was really fun – there were homemade cakes, new bloggy friends and free fairtrade and organic pants! I couldn’t beliieeeeve it. Nor could I believe their future plans to make pants out of banana fibre – you heard it here first.

Hannah featured me again on her blog too – I could get quite used to this. Shirt and belt are vintage, trousers are *cough* Topshop *cough*.

I’m now up getting ready to go to Edinburgh and Climate Camp tomorrow! I am so ridiculously excited and so woefully underprepared. Hopefully I’ll make that train tomorrow, watch this space for camp updates!

hanna ♥